you are me (I wish I were you)
by Someone aka Me
Summary: Luna finds a lonely thestral, helps it find its mother, and thinks about her own mother in the process.


Assignment 12: Gardening: Task 6: Bird bath/feeder - Write about caring for a winged creature/being.

* * *

She's on the edge of the forest because she's gone to see the thestrals.

She understands them. She knows what it is to be misunderstood.

Besides that, she thinks they're beautiful. They're all sleek lines, sinewy muscle and skin stretched over bone. Their figures belie the strength that lies within.

She loves that. She loves the tightly coiled vitality, the deceiving litheness of limbs.

And… well. She thought by her third year at Hogwarts, maybe she'd have made some friends by now. Human friends, not just the thestrals.

Because thestrals are great and all, and they listen better than even her father, which is saying something, because he's a very good listener. Sometimes she thinks they're better than people. But they don't talk back to her.

She's looking for the herd, because she knows they've been on the move lately. She's been pausing, though, to smell the yellow flowers and say hello to the bees. That's when she stumbles into the foal. The creature is black as a starless night sky, with wings so thin they're translucent — only the bones are the colour of charred earth. It's limbs are even lankier and more awkward than those of a fully grown thestral.

It looks abandoned. It looks forlorn.

She moves toward the creature, blinking at it.

It stares at her, large eyes wide and sad. It makes a haunting, thin whinny.

"Oh, no. Have they left you behind?"

The small thestral whinnies.

Her heart breaks.

She looks at the creature and she remembers being so small and watching her mother's cauldron shatter, watching her mother fall to the floor and never get back to her feet.

She remembers being left behind.

"It's okay," she tells the creature. "It's okay. I'll find your herd with you."

She digs around her bag and comes away with some jerky that she'd asked the house elves for, tossing it in front of the young thestral.

It immediately starts devouring the meat, and she smiles.

"Don't worry, little one," she says softly. "You won't be alone for long."

She doesn't know how best to find the herd — she was just going to wander the forest looking — but she knows she cannot leave the young thestral here alone. The forest is a vast maze filled with dangerous creatures, even to those some refer to as harbingers of death.

She lets the thestral eat, and then encourages it to its feet.

"It's okay to be lonely," she tells the creature as they start walking. "Sometimes I'm lonely too. My papa says sometimes the best people are. It's because they don't understand us. But that's okay. He also tells me not to be afraid of my silly ideas, and no one else ever tells me that. When I'm lonely, I just think about my papa. Do you have a papa? I hope so."

They wind their way through the dense trees, staying near the edge of the forest, both because that's where thestrals tend to roam and because she doesn't want to get lost.

"I'm never lonely with papa," she says to the small creature, who is trotting along after her, following her words, and possibly also the remaining jerky in her bag. "He takes me exploring. We've been looking for the crumple-horned snorkack lately. They aren't easy to find, you know, so that search is still ongoing."

The thestral nickers at her, and she smiles.

"Yes, yes. We'll find them soon. In fact —" her smile grows even wider "—I think we just have."

They emerge from the underbrush to find a herd of thestrals milling about. The youngling following her gallops forward on unsteady feet, almost stumbling into a large female. The female, presumably a mother, nuzzles at the young one.

The young thestral whinnies, except that this time it's high and joyful, still haunting but now beautiful.

The mother nuzzles her young again, and then looks up, straight at her.

And then, to her amazement, the mother thestral ducks her head, bending her front leg and dipping into a low bow.

She stares in amazement at this graceful, proud creature, showing her clear deference.

She knows it for the gift that it is.

And so, in reply, she salutes the thestral, tosses the jerky from her bag into the clearing, and slips away through the trees, letting them have their reunion in peace.

She tells herself that she isn't jealous of the reunion she never got to have.

She almost believes it.

* * *

Seasonal Birthstones: Sardonyx - (dialogue) "Don't be afraid of your silly ideas."

Seasonal Flowers: Sunflower - (creature) Bee

Element: word: charred

Shay's Musical: The Phantom of the Opera - write about someone being shunned for their looks

Gryff Themed: trait: Chivalrous

Disney S1: Reindeers Are Better Than People - Write about someone who prefers animals to people.

Amber's Attic: 5. Last Sad Song: Write about someone learning to rise above their sadness.

Lyric Alley 11: With hearts open wide

AAA 3. Hello and Welcome — Write about an open-minded person.

Eagles: Luna Lovegood: (color) yellow; (action) searching

Gobstones: Brown Stone - Journey; A: Forbidden Forest P: animal lover T: (word) ongoing

World cup: 19th June - Colombia vs _Japan_ \- 13:00 - Character: Luna

Insane house: word: harbinger

 _747 words_


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